With A Little Help

29th March – Board 7: Game All. Dealer South.

It can be very annoying to help the opposition bid a game when they were about to play in a part score, but the sad truth is that it happens from time to time with nobody to really blame.

West	North	East	South
			No
1H	No	No	Dbl
Redbl	2D	2H	3D
4H	End

Unless you are playing a strong club system I can see no sound alternative to opening 1H on that West hand and East can hardly be blamed for passing. However it would be feeble in the extreme for South to pass and while a bid of 2D might seem appropriate I think that that is incorrect. What is wrong with a take-out double? I agree that partner might bid clubs but if he does you bid diamonds, obviously showing spades as well. West can show his strength by redoubling and North will compete in diamonds and if East has any backbone he will surely bid 2H, making it easy for his partner to bid the cold game. At favourable vulnerability N/S have a save in 5D for a modest gain but as it is discretion should prevail.

No Messing

29th March – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

Having a good imagination is an essential attribute of the successful bridge player, which often means bypassing the prosaic in order to do something rather more spectacular. Such was the case with the featured hand where West seemed to have a problem after his partner had made a take-out double of the opening bid and his right-hand opponent had passed. Clearly the hand is too good for 2D and 4D takes you past the most likely winning spot, so I think the solution is to ignore diamonds altogether and – no messing – just jump to the no-trump game. After all, those diamonds are going to provide a bushel load of tricks.

West	North	East	South
	1H	Dbl	No
3NT	End

Of course the no-trump game can be defeated on the lead of a small spade, ducked by declarer, and a heart return from South, but that is never going to happen and if it does you just reach for the next board. In reality you are going to get a small heart lead and while the a priori odds favour taking two finesses in diamonds that would be foolish given that North has opened the bidding and South has remained silent. So play diamonds from the top and enter +630 in your scorecard.

Minor Suit Slams

22nd March – Board 1: Love All. Dealer North.

Bidding minor suit slams after a 2NT opening is notoriously difficult, but the following scheme seems to fit the bill well enough:
a) 3S shows at least 4-4 in the minors and with no interest opener rebids 4NT.
b) 4D shows a six-carder or more and is a single-suited slam try. Again with no interest opener signs off with 4NT.
c) 4C shows a six-carder or more and is a single-suited slam try. Again with no interest opener signs off with 4NT.

West	North	East	South
	No	No	2NT
No	4D	No	4H
No	5D	No	5S
No	6C	No	6D
End

When North jumps to 4D opener is charmed and shows support by cue-bidding in hearts. With a minimum hand for his jump I dare say North would retreat to 5D but South is clearly determined to bid a small slam at least and paints a further picture by now cue-bidding in spades. This would give North the chance to show second round club control but by now opener has probably done enough and would leave the final decision to partner. The play is trivial and with the king of trumps well-placed thirteen tricks will come rolling in. Again 6NT is the big winner but as South I would be scared that North holds a singleton club.

I’m afraid that with this clever addition to your armoury Gerber must be dispensed with, but no loss there. If, as responder, you want to know immediately how many aces your partner holds bid 4NT. If you have a quantitative raise to 4NT just bid 4S, which is a redundant bid you will have noticed. (You can play these two bids the other way round of course. I just find it easier that 4NT is RKCB.)

Under Control

22nd March – Board 11: Love All. Dealer South.

It would seem hard to imagine any route which would not take you to a grand slam on the hand shown below but as is the way of things it all seemed much harder at the table than away from it.

West	North	East	South
			1C
No	2D	No	3C
No	4NT	No	5C
No	7C	End

The initial 2D response is game forcing of course and when opener rebids his suit this shows at least a six-carder. Why? Well with another four-card suit he would bid it and with a balanced 3-3-2-5 hand he would either have opened 1NT or be rebidding it. After wheeling out the Old Black North knows – should know – that all the key cards are present, for South would have an eight count at most if he had none! So North can now count twelve tricks even if South had no other useful card, which is why I favour 7C over 7NT. Just suppose opener had

Now 7NT is a trick short but 7C can be made by ruffing out the diamonds and establishing another trick there. However playing match-pointed pairs I would go for the higher score.

Sour Grapes

15th March – Board 2: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

Any pair who bid to game on the East/West cards on the deal shown below can consider themselves to have done well, with both 4S and 5D making on minimum values. The auction might take many turns but the one featured seems to be about right.

West	North	East	South
		1D	No
1S	No	2D	No
2H	No	3D	No
4D	No	5D	End

At adverse vulnerability I do not think North should get involved so the likelihood is that East will bid diamonds three times – to show seven – whereupon with a potential ruffing value in clubs West should try for game. Game is not a gimmee by any means of course and if you swap the North and South hands around would not make, but as it is with the gentle distribution declarer should come to twelve tricks in comfort. As an aside we lost eleven imps for bidding 5D when our teammates were unlucky enough to have a slam bid against them. I make 6D a 10% prospect. Not that I’m bitter.

Off To The Races

15th March – Board 7: Game All. Dealer South.

The concept of the reverse is not really so difficult to understand yet there still does seem to be some confusion. What must be understood is that while a reverse shows a strong hand you do not go out of your way to bid your suits the wrong way round just so that you have reversed and therefore shown strength, because you can always do that in a more legitimate way. Take the hand below for example:

West	North	East	South
			1H
No	3H	No	3S
No	4D	No	4S
No	5D	No	6H
End

South has a good hand but should not fall into the trap of opening 1C in order to reverse. Just open 1H and failing support from partner make a jump rebid of 3C over 1S or 1NT and a high-card reverse of 3C over 2D. What is more all these bids would be game forcing. However when partner obligingly supports hearts it’s off to the races with a series of cue-bids. Pointless of South to bid 4NT of course after partner has shown diamond control because all that is required is for partner to have the king of clubs and the queen of hearts for the grand slam to be odds on. So give partner the chance to bid 5C over 4S to show second round control and when this is not forthcoming just settle on the small slam. Even though there is a possible trump loser the fact that the king of clubs is onside means that there is very little to the play.

The Forgotten Bid

8th March – Board 10: Game All. Dealer East.

The single jump response in a new suit is the forgotten bid of bridge and although it happens rarely it can be worth its weight in gold. Those who eschew it can find that bidding problems might occur later which are almost impossible to overcome.

West	North	East	South
		No	1S
No	3H	No	3S
No	4H	No	4NT
No	5S	No	6C
No	6H	End

Just imagine for a moment that you only bid 2H at your first go as North and partner rebids 2S. What now? 3H is non-forcing and 4H hardly does the hand justice and there is no semblance of another bid. Much better to make a jump shift in the first place showing a hand with a very good five-card suit or better and normally about sixteen points or more. (Here you can afford to shade those values because of the quality of the suit.) A rebid in the suit more or less dictates that that suit will be trumps so South has an easy way forward via RKCB. 6C of course is a grand slam try and only now should North back-pedal. As it happens the slam should be easy to bid even after a 2H response because opener will now reverse with 3C, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is best to show one’s hand in one go if possible rather than by a series of convoluted manoeuvres.

When declarer discovers that there is a trump loser he will be forced to take a club finesse in order to pitch the losing spade. For the mathematically minded this equates to 68% + ½ of 32% - or 84%, well within the odds for a small slam.

One For The Road

8th March – Board 17: Love All. Dealer North.

Nobody likes to be forced to make crucial decisions at the five-level and in any event sometimes the difference between two choices turns out to be a bit arbitrary.

West	North	East	South
	No	1H	4S
5H	No	No	???

The winning action for South would be to go quietly over 5H on the basis that the five-level belongs to the opposition, but even so the defence has to be careful. On the lead of the king of diamonds declarer can almost make his contract but will only fail because ironically his trumps are too good. Suppose he wins the diamond in dummy and ruffs a diamond high, enters dummy with the nine of trumps and ruffs another diamond. With the queen falling dummy now has two winners in the suit – but no means of getting there! Now swap the ten of hearts with the nine and dummy would have two entries in trumps. I know that at some tables the ace of spades was led followed by the ace of clubs but I am not crazy about that. Much more likely I would have thought to be giving away a trick in the suit. Of course some Souths added one for the road and bid five spades and I can understand why. After ruffing the heart lead declarer should play ace and another spade and will succeed in making eleven tricks if the trumps are 2-2 or either defender holds a singleton king or jack. This time he will be unlucky.

Sheer Heart Attack

1st March – Board 5: North/South Vul. Dealer North.

The distribution gremlins were out in force last Thursday and never more so than in the hand shown below. And as usually happens in these cases it all ended in tears for one side or the other.

West	North	East	South
	1S	2H	No
No	???

I’m not giving any more of the bidding because there are so many permutations. If East decides to bid 2H in the first instance – and he might well decide to double instead – South should pass and look bored. A double in that position is for take-out showing the minors and is not a penalty double. What he would hope to happen of course is that West would pass and for his partner to re-open with a take-out double when he would have some idea what to do. Of course that isn’t going to happen. North would probably bid 2S and now if East passes South could bid 3H, natural. Whether that message is clear to North, who knows, but it should be. Any more bidding and the red cards will start being shown and indeed 4S doubled minus lots was a common score.

Heaven And Earth

1st March – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

Doubling in the protective or ‘pass out’ position in bridge can be made on a variety of hands ranging in strength from about nine points upwards. If this may seem strange you just have to remember that partner, who has passed over the opening bid, may still have quite a lot of points but unable to contest. Maybe he has the wrong shape hand to double or nor quite enough points to bid 1NT or no five card suit in which to overcall. For this reason the hand in the protective position must move Heaven and Earth to breathe life back into the auction and ‘double’ is usually the most flexible.

West	North	East	South
1H	No	No	Dbl
3H	3S	No	4S
End

I could live with the above auction. South must not be afraid to double because he can always remove a club response to diamonds thereby showing that suit and spades. That could not be done if the double was second in hand of course because ignoring partner’s response in that situation shows a much stronger hand. Then you would already have shown an opening hand by the double, here you haven’t.

Those people who overcalled 1H with 1S will have got lucky, but they didn’t deserve to!